The archetypal Italian neo-realist film, Bicycle Thieves tells a minimalist tragedy as a good man, incessantly hampered by the cruel and unreasonable demands on a working class family man of post-WWII Italy, is compelled to violate his own moral code just to survive. It's a sad, sad film, and although its final moments give you a morsel of hope for the power of human kindness, the ultimate fate of our protagonist and his family is pretty much assured to be bleak. While there is much to praise about the performances, the editing, and the cinematography, what Bicycle Thieves - and other neorealist films - really deserve a high commendation for is showing audiences the plight of the poor at a time when the middle-classes were far more indifferent to such things than they are now.